Covid-19 and schools. A thread.

The PM has basically pleaded with teachers not to make parents choose between homeschooling and putting food on the table. The amount of wrong in there is huge. Firstly, it isn’t homeschooling - it’s learning by distance.

And there’s an important point: no one knows if kids carry this thing or not. There’s no research other than small scale studies done quickly. There have been cases in schools and day care centres like everywhere else. The fact there aren’t many in Australia is moot.

We don’t have many deaths or even that many cases in total and our population is small and spread out. Kids have caught it, teachers have caught it. No one knows with any certainty.

Most teachers would rather be isolating at home like everyone else. That way we would know we and our families are safe. We are scared about going in to school where we can’t control social distancing and we don’t know what the kids might be carrying.

As far as the PM appealing directly to teachers, don’t shoot the pianist mate. As has been manifestly clear throughout all this, teachers have little choice. We do what our state govts and leaders decide. We are scared about our health and that of our kids.

There’s an important distinction: parents provide the learning in the former and schools in the latter. Distance learning requires collaboration between schools and parents - homeschooling doesn’t need input from the school at all.